Feedlots, seasonal rentals on priority list for changes

By Robert Williams

Editor

Becker County Planning and Zoning Administrator Kyle Vareberg, along with Hoisington Koegler Group Inc.(HGKi) planning associate Lance Bernard gave a presentation on needed updates to a new county comprehensive plan at the Becker County Commissioners meeting in Detroit Lakes Tuesday, Feb. 21.

Bernard has worked with planning for multiple counties throughout the state over two decades, specializing in working in rural areas.

The last Becker County comprehensive plan was done in 2003. According to Bernard, plans should be updated every 10 years and estimated that an update would be an approximate one-year process.

Board chair Barry Nelson proposed moving quickly on feedlot applications due to a one-year moratorium set to expire that was enacted after the county approved a 3,000 animal feedlot application last year. White Earth Nation enacted the moratorium on feedlots within reservation boundaries at the time in Spring Creek Township.

“We may be able to extend that but I would like to get the guidelines out there as soon as possible,” said Nelson. 

“I think an ordinance like that with a feedlot could happen anytime,” said Bernard. 

Last year, the Spring Creek feedlot application was a first during Vareberg’s tenure.

He noted an updated ordinance and a request for proposal to find a consulting firm to update the comprehensive plan would help the county negotiate future feedlot applications and consistency on how to structure administration, along with solar construction and vacation rentals like VRBO and AirBnB.

“It’s time to do the major overhaul,” said Nelson. “We get conflicting statements within the ordinance and we continue to amend one part of it that affects another part. I think we should put out a request for proposals and move forward with this quickly.”

After Vareberg stated many real estate companies are marketing homes in the area to be purchased for seasonal or part-time rentals, Nelson said, with the board’s approval, coming changes in regards to vacation rentals in the county might make a purchase of a home specifically for renting less than advantageous for potential buyers.

Oman stated he prefers the idea of an independent company working on a comprehensive plan update describing Becker County a county “on steroids.”

“You are a big rural county,” Oman said. “You have a double-A plus credit rating and no other rural county has that and that’s a testament to the diversity of industry you have,  housing, tourism, you’ve got it all. Those things will grow in its own momentum, but you will now have the opportunity in strategically managing that growth in what you want this county to be over 20 years. I would urge you to give us some direction.”

The board approved the zoning committee to create a request for proposals to hire a firm to complete the plan updates with Nelson asking the planning and zoning committee to move ahead on ordinances that need to be implemented soon, stressing feedlots, the seasonal rentals, solar and wind farms and reasonable enforcement issues.

Residents Bill Henke Willis Mattison spoke to the board and offered the services and expertise of members from his division of the Izaak Walton League during ordinance development during the comprehensive planning updates.

“We’re very appreciative of the board’s move to pause the influx of large animal feeding operations in Becker County by stating an intent to instigate your moratorium,” said Mattison. “We’re here to urge you to keep that process moving forward.”

Mattison offered to return to next month’s meeting with input. Henke brought along the existing comprehensive plan, which he was a part of creating, pointing out how the plan does have some guiding principles.

“We would love to be part of a work group, steering committee involved with the comprehensive plan,” said Henke. “One of the various serious risk factors associated with feedlots and that being antibiotic resistance. The data is coming out and its surprising what is emerging from this. It can’t be any more important than now to have a comprehensive plan that dovetails well with our ordinances, so that you really can address it well.

Henke reiterated specific areas to address like environmental degradation, a destruction of the social fabric of the area’s agriculture community in the county and what he called “the real elephant in the room” as a retired physician who struggled with antibiotic resistance.

“It is real and in addition to human overuse of antibiotics the ag use is right running neck-and-neck with that,” he said,

Henke noted a statistic that 60-70 percent of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are for ag and feedlot purposes, a lot of it going to large, corporate feedlots citing the difficulties to keep animals healthy in large numbers compounded by those antibiotics finding their way into local water sources.

“This is a high magnitude issue,” he said.

Administrator Report

County Administrator Pat Oman reported on Northern Dental Access Center selecting Frazee as the site for their new $9 million dental building and the non-profit’s need for funding that will be discussed at a meeting March 15 at 1 p.m. Commissioners John Okeson and Eruca Jepson expressed interest in attending.

Open Forum

During the open forum, resident Jane Hokanson called out commissioner Dave Meyer’s Feb. 8 report where he stated county employees were “our strongest assets,” along with his efforts to advocate for better wages for union employees.

Hokanson pointed out what she believed were the county’s actual strongest assets, that being the tax paying citizens. She then gave multiple examples of elderly residents currently living on fixed incomes and the hardships of both increased property taxes and the current inflationary trends in the cost of living. She concluded that Meyer and the board should be advocating for those people, including a 99-year-old resident still living on her own.

“The above residents of Becker County need you to hold the line for them,” Hokanson said. “You don’t have to go far to see the increase in the price of living. We need to consider all the residents of Becker County, not one percent employees.”

Sheriff Report

Becker County Sheriff Todd Glander reported on a grant to be received for remote electronic alcohol monitoring, along with the purchase of a new snowmobile to be used with the department’s rescue sled.The new snowmobile, a 2023 Polaris 650 Indy, replaces a 1998 model. The cost of $15,295 is offset by grant monies, budgeted funds, sale of the 1998 Polaris XLT and forfeited funds.

The sled is used for enforcing off-highway vehicle laws, rules and regulations, along with emergency responses.

A request was approved to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to purchase an emergency management trailer to be used on-site as needed. The cost is $29,650.

A personnel request was approved for seasonal boat and water deputies. 

A federal supplemental boating safety patrol grant of $5,500 is available to be used for night-vision technology. The board approved the Sheriff’s department to apply.

The grant is a supplemental application to the State’s grant for county boat and water safety. Last year, the county received $17,430. The 2023 amount has yet to be determined.

Highway

The board approved a bid from Mark Sand & Gravel of Fergus Falls that was less than 2 percent above the engineer’s estimate for the Project SAP 003-637-021, Trunk Highway 34 to the Shell Lake Public Access (5.4 miles) – Reclaiming, bituminous surfacing, aggregate and shouldering.

Major quantities of work are: Aggregate Shouldering – 8,350 Ton; Bituminous Reclamation – 83,400 Square Yardage; Bituminous Mixtures – 18,500 Ton;  Traffic Control Signing and Traffic Control Striping.

Land Use/Environmental Services

The board approved a license for Star Disposal, LLC, to commercially collect and transfer solid waste in the county.

The county was awarded a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Tree Seedling Drought Relief grant in the amount of $34,006.86 with no local match required. Funds from the reforestation grant due to the 2021 drought will be used to pay for tree seedlings and tree protection.

Licenses

The club on-sale liquor license renewal for the Frazee golf course was approved.

Information Technology

A contract for information technology services provided by Arvig was renewed after a recommendation by the finance committee according to IT head Judy Dodd.